Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Putin's Goals in Ukraine?

There are many ways you can spin this one in world opinion or in court. The democratically elected president of Ukraine has asked Putin for military help. As much as we know the Ukrainian president is a self serving POS, the Russian troops can be viewed as "legitimate".

On the other side, Ukraine has a small military and even smaller economy; they really don't stand much of a chance opposing Russia.

Says the resident revisionist...

Just like Hitler in 1938 in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Same general issues.

Funny I didn't think that Joe Stalin had any religion yet alone being a hated bolshevik.

History tends to repeat when the same mistakes are made, over and over again. After all, there's nothing new under the sun. Man will always be at war, and war becomes an option when one is weaker than the other.

Obama will turn out to not only be bad for the US and it's citizens, he'll turn out to be bad for world peace. Notice that when we project strength, nobody wants to test the limits, but now, the game players have switched sides. We have pissed on our allies, and have given the enemy the wrong signals. Those that think that what has transpired in the last few days are of random design, are in for a shock. Nothing is random when it comes to these types of issues. We're about to learn another lesson.

I'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction.

In the very near future the Chinese will move troops and ships to the disputed islands in the East China Sea. They'll inform Japan after the move is made and tell Japan that they'll sink Japanese warships that approach. They have subs and could very easily do it.

Japan will quickly realize they don't have the means to extract the Chinese from the islands.

Putin will back the Chinese as the Chinese are now backing him.

What will we (Obama) do?

If we do nothing, that will indicate an open door for the Chinese to make their move on Taiwan.

If we send warships we might lose a few and we will risk starting a major war.

Being weak and ineffective has caused a power vacuum. The bullies now run the schoolyard...

You do not understand the structure and composition of the Russian Military. For this little operation they would not need to pull anything from the three most eastern military districts, which would cover the Chinese boarder.

In addition a significant portion of the Russian Nuclear arsenal is intermediate range ballistic missiles designed to reach China, but not the US. Russia actually points more nukes at China then they've ever pointed at us.

Rule 1.

Never start a land war in Asia.

Then that would suggest the Russians are not entirely stupid, and there is a good chance they will be your best allies when China finally does kick the traces.

The head of the Ukrainian navy has defected to the Russians. This behavior is also reflects the ethnic Russian MAJORITY in the east.

So long as Putin keeps his boys east of the Dnieper things will stay relatively calm.

If I was Putin, I'd stay east of the Dnieper and push for a national referendum to split the country, and build very close relations with the new Eastern Ukraine.

One thing the Russians, and Putin in particular are not is stupid. At the regimental level and above, Russian officers are some of the best trained in the entire world. They are pragmatist, and in effect play chess and plan 10 moves ahead. Unless you very creative and can get inside and disrupt their decision making cycle, they will own you on a regular basis.

Obama can barley find Ukraine on a map, let alone mapped out the potential Ukrainian political decision trees 10 moves in advance. Lets face it. That's hard work that might cut into his time golfing.

In addition, China isn't stupid either. They understand Russian possesses a superior nuclear force. The sparsely populated Russian Far East does not make great targets, but he densely populated Chinese coast would be a great shooting gallery for the Russian IRBM's. Unlike us, Russians consider population centers valid strategic targets because people are an essential component in industrial production. A couple of Russian Delta IV's could do imperishable damage to the Chinese Western coast. Consequently, the idea that the Chinese would attempt to move north of the Amur River does not bear scrutiny.

Yes, history does repeat itself, but the historical parallel the Chinese should observe is the Russo/Japanese war of 1905, where the smaller, better trained Japanese navy sunk not one, but two Russian fleets. On a per ship basis, there is no comparison between the capabilities of the Japanese and Chinese Navy's.